Victoria’s blackest night marked by fear, heroism, tragedy, and a miracle as children survive fire

Press, 18 February 1983, Page 1

Victoria’s blackest night marked by fear, heroism, tragedy, and a miracle as children survive fire

By

DAVID ROSS,

former New Zealand journalist now working on the “Melbourne Herald.”

Fear, heroism, tragedy — and a “miracle" — were the major stories of Victoria’s blackest night. The Premier, Mr John Cain, on a helicopter tour of the fire-ravaged towns and rural communities of Australia’s “garden state,” said afterwards that it was easier to count the houses that remained.

“You cannot count those that are lost,” he said. As the holocaust swept through Victoria in ail directions, more than 120 tiny children sheltered under wet towels while a firestorm razed the town of Cockatoo around them.

Scores of holidaymakers

and local people huddled on the pier in the beach town of Lome while they watched whole streets engulfed byflames.

Hundreds and hundreds of families across the state fought lone battles to save their homes — and lost. If the tears that were shed in the last 24 to 36 hours had been collected they would have put out the fires themselves, as thousands of Victorians mourned more than 60 dead.

People died in fires throughout the state but the police feared the worst up to late last evening for the death toll in the tiny rural township of Cockatoo in the

Dandenong Hills behind Melbourne. Cockatoo, which was burnt off the map of Victoria on Wednesday night, had a “miracle” escape.

More than 120 of the town’s children, from babies to ,12-year-olds, huddled under wet towels to survive a huge firestorm which raged around them for almost an hour.

Relieved fathers, most of whom had been out all night fighting the fire, stood outside the small kindergarten where the children had

sheltered, and shook their heads in disbelief yesterday. Their wives, who had sheltered with the children, still could not believe or understand late last evening how the tiny tots had managed to survive the holocaust. As David Adams, one of the heroes of the fire, said afterwards: “If that is not a miracle we don’t know what is.” “The kids were right in the middle of a fire that wiped out the whole of Cockatoo — and they didn’t even get

scorched. “The wind was at least 100 miles an hour — it was so fierce it ripped trees out of the ground and bodily picked up some of the volunteer firemen. “With that wind came the fire — scores of fireballs, each of them at least as big as a soccer ball, added to the terror. “It was the most frightening thing I have ever seen — never again. “All the time as the wind and the frames were roaring round us and the children,

the fireballs and the gum trees were exploding with tremendous noise. “How the children did not panic I will never know. "How they were not all killed, either by the flames or by a lack of air when it was all sucked out of the kindergarten by the fire, has to be a miracle. “The children were heroes.” What Mr Adams did not mention was that he also was a hero. Mrs lola Tilley, the head teacher at the Cockatoo Kin-

dergarten. made sure the news media knew how Mr Adams and one other man — an unsung hero, as he would not give his name — sat on the roof of the kindergarten with hoses throughout the firestorm, grimly hanging on as they ignored the risk to their own lives to keep the building wet. “It was an horrendous wind.” Mrs Tilley said. “It brought with it a fire that the ‘Towering Inferno’ had nothing on — a wall of flames that I hope I will never see again.” The drama which wiped out the town of Cockatoo started soon after 6.30 p.m. on Wednesday when a team

of local volunteer firemen went out to fight a small fire on the outskirts of the township. "We nearly had it out." said Laurie Butcher, the owner of the local supermarket. yesterday. "Then, in seconds it seemed, the fire broke out everywhere and we knew we had a major outbreak on our hands. "The winds were so fierce that within minutes we had no control over the blaze. “Another problem was that we had most of our trucks down helping fight the fires at Belgrave.

“Our fire lasted only an hour at the most, but it went right through Cockatoo.” He and other leading members of the town’s 3000 population late yesterday estimated that the cost of the fire, which gutted about 500 homes and more than 100 cars, was at least $lO million. As Mr Butcher and other volunteer fire-fighters tried their best to control the rapidly spreading fire, the town's siren was sounded warning all Cockatoo residents to leave their homes. So swift were the main bush fires that very ■ few people had a chance to collect any belongings. Police, firemen, and volunteers had only one instruction as they knocked on doors: “Grab your insurance policy and run mate; That’s all you have time for.” “All the men were already out fighting the fires, and many mothers and children had already left Cockatoo, Those that were left came to the kindergarten with their

dogs, cats, budgies, and goats,” Mrs Tilley said. “The children were magnificent. AU of them were brave little things. “They never made a sound, they never panicked, they trusted us completely. “They . placed the wet towels over their heads and lay down on the floor and never complained once, despite the air being thick with smoke and the trees and fireballs exploding.

“Not one of them said a word. Each one of them deserves a bravery medal. “But why the kindergarten never went up in flames we will never know. “Everything around us was burnt to the ground.” About nine hours later, at 3.45 a.m., most of the children were still wide awake, reliving the terror of the smoke and flames they had seen as they hugged the floor.

The kindergarten was in darkness, as all power lines were down, when/he main room was lit up. A smouldering power pole and its cross struts, only about 20 metres from the kindergarten, burst back into flames to resemble a burning cross. A little voice in the darkness of the kindergarten said: “Mummy, look — God must love us.”